I just received my order from G.H. Wild, I only ordered six cheap daylilies, but still they said they were sending a free bonus "plant". Well, I just assumed that would be a daylily. So I open up the package with my wife helping, they use very messy stuff for filler, so we were doing this outside. I accounted for each ordered plant then she reads "free bonus plant" and I ask what is it, she reads off "Annemarie's Dream". I respond "Never heard of it", she hands it to me and it says "2 Bulbs-White-2-3' tall, Double Lily". I never thought the bonus plant would not even be a daylily!

Wow. I been searching all over for Anna Marie's Dream which I wanted to add to my garden. If you like asiatic lilies you should be pleased. It looks like a pretty one.

Well, I tried to find it in the database, but Wild had it spelled wrong on the label, in the database it is actually Annamarie's Dream. "Annamarie's" being one word. I do like and have several asiatic lilies, but...when I am ordering daylilies I expected the bonus to be a daylily. Now if I had been ordering asiatic lilies I would not expect a daylily as a bonus. I thought it a little late to be planting asiatics, is it still a good time to plant them?

Give it a try after all it was free, you never know it could do ok.

Yes Larry, you can plant it now. It probably won't bloom any more this year, but there is a chance. For sure it will for next year

Even when I ordered hostas from them and others I always got daylilies.
Got mini pearl and then Midnight Waltz this year.

I agree that if you order dls your bonus plant should be a dl. That seems to be a well established standard among sellers based on what I have seen. Unless they specify something different on the website or order form, or ask you ahead of time...

A free plant is a free plant. Hopefully you can make use of it. If not, nothing was lost, really. Give it away, or toss it.

But do you know what? Even if you order daylilies, and get a free daylily gift plant, it may still be nothing that you want.

I'm pretty full up on daylilies now, to the point that the garden has a virtual revolving door, insofar as they are concerned. (At one time in my life I couldn't see why other daylily people did such a thing, but now I do. There ARE better plants available, in some cases, than what you started out with.)

Because of that (and the drought is not helping), if I remember to, I try to specify "no gift plants, please". (I confess that sometimes I will break the rule, especially with sellers who have been very generous to me with good gift plants in the past. )

But another reason for "no gift plants" (with the exception of certain sellers), is that I have noticed that all too frequently, if I don't specify "no gift plants", I will get one alright... but it will be nothing that I want, and also nothing that I would dare give away. (Can you say, some older plant that is 4.7 on the rust resistance scale, or is otherwise notorious for rust susceptibility? Or has such a parent? Or has muddy color, or low bud count and branching, or other problems?)

Just because it may be customary in the daylily world to give buyers daylily gift plants (which, when I first started buying daylilies, was an astonishment to me), it is not obligatory, and as such we should not expect gift plants, let alone good, great, blessing-to-our-garden gift plants.

Just my opinion... (and no, I am not a seller...nor do I have any relationship with the aforementioned nursery).

I'd take any freebie over a Stella, etc.

I agree it stands to reason a daylily order should include another daylily. It's nursery, could be a newbie filling orders, could be an overabundance of Asiatic return. If I were a vendor and had an abundance of a particular flower that might not sell? Great gift plant...

Simple business. Gifting plants gets them "out there", better than watching them rot. Pic posted looks pretty nice, I'd try it.

If it were a hybridizer that only sold daylilies I'd question the gift plant more but I'd still stick it in a pot or in the ground. You might love it.

I know you're going to plant it and watch. Best of luck!

That is such a gorgeous flower and I am anxious to see how you like it. There are so few pretty whites, so don't toss it out, lol.

Interesting... I usually place a small order with them each year for some of their cheapy plants (I'm not a huge fan of theirs to be honest) and I've always gotten a bonus daylily. That's odd that they sent you something else. This year I received Mini Pearl.

Tammy

I actually ordered Mini Pearl from them back in March, all the plants included in that order have bloomed already, with the exception of Mini Pearl.

I have ordered from them in the past...a few bloomed and a few did not, but they gave me a merchandise credit for the non bloomers. This spring they added Carolina Pansy face which is a Browns Ferry cultivar that sells for $50.00. Gilbert Wild has it for $18.00, so I purchased it along with Bestseller for $15.00. Both cultivars are smallish and I certainly don't expect them to bloom this season. The bonus plant was a iris...gypsy something. I was surprised as I have always received daylilies as bonus plants when ordering the same. I have quite a few purple and white iris's so I stuck it in a pot and will replant when it grows a bit.

Here is my lily I got as a bonus plant 'Annamarie's Dream', already blooming but right now very short.

If you look to the right you can make out the buds on the second bulb, it should be blooming soon. I do hope it will develope a little more height.

That's one on my wish list, Larry. I will be interested how it does for you!!

Seedfork, how are your GHW fans doing?

Well, only 'Wineberry Candy' has bloomed so far out of that last order. It had the last bloom on it yesterday, and it was completely dug out of the ground for the second time last night, so I replanted it again. I have resisted baiting my trap, but lately the problem has increased and having plants dug up is getting to be a regular morning thing, so I baited the trap this morning.
The other plants have mostly experienced the same fate at one time or another, but they are all living and doing well at the moment. They will be lovely plants by next spring and I expect them to all bloom if I can keep them in the ground.
The G.H. Wild order I planted early in the spring did fantastic. I think every one of those plants bloomed, the outstanding one in that bunch was 'Scottish Fantasy', really liked that one.

I have enjoyed reading the comments about what is digging in everyones beds and have split the posts off into their own thread. The new thread can be found here.....

The thread "What is Digging in Your Daylily Beds?" in Daylilies forum

Larry, you will love Wineberry Candy, it's one of my favorite and one of the first DL I ever purchased. I even have a prolif from last year growing in another one of my beds.~Jan